There are some major changes coming to World of Warcraft from the latest PTR patch. There's some really exciting stuff, including a new holiday and auras that will allow you to cosmetically alter your character to varying degrees. Both Perculia and I have been hard at work on the PTR getting screenshots of these changes and uncovering the latest details.

Oh, and one more thing: APRIL FOOL'S!!

If you're seeing broken item links, we've unfortunately had to remove these fake items for real datapushes. Click on the images below to view what the original article looked like:

Cosmetic Auras

Well, it seems like auras are coming to World of Warcraft. They will be tied to clearing old raids, most likely as incentive to clear the raids and experience older content for newer players. The item shows up in your mailbox if you unlock the achievement and remains in your inventory, allowing you to click on it to cosmetically alter your character! We started running some raids and uncovered the following auras tied to the following achievements:

Based on data, it looks like every legacy raid will have one, with each aura thematic to the zone. Molten Core has a fiery aura, Temple of Ahn'Qiraj has a sandstorm aura, and so on. This is totally exciting!

Earth Week

It's been a while since a new holiday has come to Azeroth, but it looks like we'll finally be seeing one. Much like how Children's Week was revamped and thus delayed on live years ago, it looks like we have an in-game version of Earth Week that will be lagging behind the real world version which happens mid-April (unless 5.3 is magically that close to being done!).

The world has been polluted and it's up to you to save it. The Crown Chemical Co. was not environmentally friendly when they were discarding the Boxes of Chocolates and Perfumes from Love is in the Air--they threw them everywhere and left broken glass all over every zone! Meanwhile, the goblins have been up to their usual polluting antics and there's been an oil spill off the coast of Azshara!

Luckily Mistress Vi and her band of druids are here to clean up first and ask questions later. They leave you in charge of cleaning up the mess as randomized dailies, which give you a bag of supplies which contains gold and has a chance to contain a rare item such as the new battle pet , an adorable treant! Vi and her companions are holed up in every major city hub and it's likely there will be tons of festivities having to do with cleaning up the area; they were classified as vendor NPCs but had no goods to buy yet. So far we have found dailies where you pick up and in various level-appropriate zones, compact them into , and turn them into Vi.

We've also datamined Headpiece of Seven Sacred Seals--while we don't know the source yet, perhaps it's a vendor reward that costs a lot of or is a guaranteed drop from that one lucky player can win per kill.

Additionally, it seems the Crown Chemical Co.'s trash is getting a mind of its own. A sentient being, , spawns in the areas most polluted every hour. He requires a group of 25 players to kill and has Burnin' and Summon Vol'jin and Baine so far as abilities--it also looks like it will Devour its prey. While right now he doesn't drop anything, it looks like he will drop five rings every time:

Cosmetic Armor

Recently on the PTR, we datamined Griftah's Authentic Troll Shoes which appears to be the first piece of Cosmetic Armor--a new armor category seen on the Auction House in 5.2. Looks like there's a lot more Cosmetic Armor coming besides those shoes on the PTR now.

Chests in each zone appear to have a very low chance to drop zone-specific cosmetic armor, that resembles models of popular transmog gear--some which were even removed from the game! Here's some examples of what we've opened over the weekend:

Hearthstone in WoW

What we found over the weekend is an exciting start--NPCs in Azeroth like Hearthstone so much, they've taken to playing it in their taverns and inns! Tables spotted in Dalaran's Cantrips & Crows, Shattrath's World End Tavern, and Blackrock Depths's The Grim Guzzler are now covered with playing cards! Bar vendors now sell Chronomancer Mantle in limited amounts as well. As other dice were very difficult to acquire, such as Decahedral Dwarven Dice, except these vendors to slowly restock their wares.

: Hearthstone has nine playable class heroes, based after major figures in Warcraft's lore. It looks like you'll be able to summon a Paladin Hero at some point, but based on his flavor text, he may be the type to hearth away when the going gets tough.

5.2 added Fish of the Day events with many Angler NPCs milling about for flavor, so it's not too much to hope that in future PTR builds, we could see Hearthstone-faction NPCs sitting down to play some friendly card games, as well as quests to gain reputation with them so we can get our hands on that Paladin trinket.

Doritos Locos Feasts

Blizzard isn't exactly foreign to brand inserting into World of Warcraft--just look at the battle bots they did with Mountain Dew years ago. It looks like this time Doritos have hooked up with Blizzard to advertise their new Doritos Locos flavors.

Luckily they've chosen to do so in a way that really benefits raiders! When cooking Great Pandaren Banquet, you have a chance to create a stronger feast that grants +300 to a stat instead of +275! Chefs all around Azeroth are promoting this tasty new feast as well with new dialogue, so get cooking!

Comment by whitewolf1023

Comment by Nulgar

Comment by Adamsm

on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:59:09 -0500

Happy April's Fool Day Wowhead.

Comment by scmucas2001

on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:00:19 -0500

I was good with most of it, but I was about to write a rambling manifesto on all that is wrong with the Doritos Locos thing (even though I have a Warbot from the original promotion ;)) for a fraction of a second. Good job, WoWhead.

Comment by Wishblade

on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:00:35 -0500

Oh April the 1st...

Comment by Permastorm

on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:07:35 -0500

you know.. this is actually believable

Comment by Sallara

on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:08:20 -0500

The feasts are so badly photoshopped, but I wanted them to be real.

Comment by Kaiteir

on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:09:12 -0500

alright ill admit you had me until i got to the doritos thing...then i was like wait what?

Comment by nonentity

on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:09:57 -0500

I freaking hate April Fools...

Please, next time you do April Fools jokes, go *way* over the top. I actually thought the Auras thing sounded realistic and like a nice idea. :(

Comment by seraph10201

on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:10:15 -0500

I forgot today was april 1st... Haven't been looking at the calendar o.O ..... was sorely disappointed when i realized what day it was after reading class aura's...

Comment by Ashelia

on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:17:59 -0500

I freaking hate April Fools...

Please, next time you do April Fools jokes, go *way* over the top. I actually thought the Auras thing sounded realistic and like a nice idea. :(

The Doritos Locos thing was what we hoped would key people off that it's a joke. I mean, it's not a well-done shop and there's no way they'd do that kind of placement in a game. ;)

Comment by kanivara

on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:18:44 -0500

Argh. You got me on this one.

Well played.

Comment by Kazlehoff

on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:20:40 -0500

And i wanted that aura thing to be real :( U B BREAKIN MAH <3'S WOWHEAD

Comment by Sutcliff

on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:26:46 -0500

Good one. ;)

Comment by Salmanius

on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:28:36 -0500

Ahhh, the Earth Day sounds fun. I want 28 slot bags without using so much imperial silk :(

Comment by Zerocopy

on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:29:19 -0500

That image of the Skysludge is way too obvious.

Comment by Xe4ro

on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:33:36 -0500

The Auras should be real , it would be perfect :/

Comment by Nander

on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:35:57 -0500

April Fools

Comment by Javelin

on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:39:23 -0500

While reading the cosmetic armor part, i was secretly hoping that I was wrong and it wasn't april 1st :(

Comment by Rankkor

on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:43:17 -0500

Me, I'm happy that you make silly easy-to-spot jokes. That joke about being able to dye our gear was just mean T_T